Following a backlash of plastic surgery rumors Ashley Judd has stepped forward calling the conversation surrounding her "nasty, gendered, and misogynistic."

While promoting her new television series "Missing" in March, several comments surfaced speculating that Ashley Judd had received plastic surgery. Media sites joked that Judd's wrinkles were "missing" and speculated the Judd has submitted herself to some form of Botox treatment.

"I suspect that she's had a good dose of Botox in her forehead to smooth it and injections of fat into her cheeks to plump them up," Dr. Anthony Youn told Radar Online, who ran the article "From Pretty To Puffy: Ashley Judd Has Fattened Her Face With Fillers, Says Expert" on March 13.

Radar, like many other media outlets, went on to suggest that the assumed plastic surgery was a mistake, calling it a "hamster-cheeked look."

Now Judd, who claims that she typically stays away from reading news about her, has come forward to chastise the public for promoting a culture that she considers to be "outrageous."

"Who makes the fantastic leap from being sick, or gaining some weight over the winter, to a conclusion of plastic surgery?" Judd asked in her essay which appeared in The Daily Beast. "Our culture, that's who."

Judd goes on to suggest that the conversation had about her expands beyond the individual and has a negative impact on all of society.

"The insanity has to stop, because as focused on me as it appears to have been, it is about all girls and women. In fact, it's about boys and men, too, who are equally objectified and ridiculed, according to heteronormative definitions of masculinity that deny the full and dynamic range of their personhood," she stated.

Judd also suggested that she had developed the essay in an effort to put an end to the extreme focus and scrutiny on the physical appearance.

"I hope the sharing of my thoughts can generate a new conversation: Why was a puffy face cause for such a conversation in the first place?"